The Backstory of My Twin Pregnancy Hospital Stay [Pt. 1]: Finding Out We Were Pregnant with Twins

The biggest surprise of our lives: Finding out we were pregnant with two.

Neither of us had twins in our families. So in early July of 2024, when my husband and I found out we were pregnant with two, it was a total shock. I was at the ultrasound appointment alone because…it was my fourth pregnancy. Need I explain?

Before the ultrasound tech started the exam, I joked, “There better just be one in there!”

I never said anything like that during ultrasounds for our other three kids. But since we had three under five already and this pregnancy came as somewhat of a surprise, the joke felt appropriate.

As she started the exam, the ultrasound tech turned to me and asked, “Are you going to kill me if I tell you there’s two?”

I looked at her in total disbelief and probably said something along the lines of, “You’re kidding, right?” But I don’t remember exactly—I must have blacked out.

After seeing the ultrasound with my own eyes, I broke the awkward silence by laughing and crying at the same time. I was overwhelmed with emotion and simply had no words.

While we had talked about wanting another, our youngest was just over a year old. I was still nursing so my body was out of whack, and my husband and I were both sleep deprived. The plan was to wait at least few more months before “trying” for baby number four, let alone five.

But as it happens, God had other plans.

Prior to finding out we were pregnant with twins, I had experienced two chemical pregnancies in a row. A chemical pregnancy is an early miscarriage that occurs when a fertilized egg implants in the uterus but fails to develop further. It typically happens within the first five weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they’re pregnant.

Personally, I choose to refer to these losses as chemical pregnancies versus miscarriages, because I don’t want to pretend to know what it feels like to suffer the full-blown loss of a baby who was celebrated, cared for, and loved. But that’s not to say these two babies weren’t cared for and loved. And some strange symptoms led me to take early pregnancy tests that confirmed indeed, I was pregnant. But something in my body, heart, and mind told me to stay guarded. A mother’s intuition is incredibly strong.

Before I could fully process either of these two pregnancies, the positive lines were gone and I was experiencing symptoms of loss.

My heart goes out to all those who’ve suffered the mental anguish of mourning a child who was celebrated, loved, then lost. It’s a special club that no mother deserves to be a part of. And that’s not to mention the physical side effects of miscarriage that are traumatic and scary by themselves.

With my second chemical pregnancy, I bled so much that I needed medication to stop it. At the appointment with my new OBGYN, she told me that because of the amount of blood I lost, it would probably be a long time before I ovulate again.

Boy, was she wrong.

Despite thinking I wasn’t fertile and that we were being careful, the next month, not only was I pregnant again—I was pregnant with twins.

My best friend since high school gave birth to the cutest set of twin girls just a few years before all this happened, so it’s not like the idea of twins weren’t on my radar. I spent a lot of time with her family, always looking at my friend thinking, “Better you than me!” I adored her girls and admired how she embraced the role of “twin mom” so naturally. But I never imagined taking on the title of “twin mom” for myself.

Since my husband was working from home the day of my ultrasound appointment, I decided to wait and break the news to him in-person. But sitting alone on this bombshell for a 30-minute car ride home felt impossible. Truthfully, I didn’t make it out of the ultrasound room before calling someone.

That “someone” was my best friend and fellow twin mom. While shocked herself, she excitedly assured me that not only would I survive this, but I’d now get to experience a special kind of twin magic that only twin moms could know.

Thankfully, I made it home without crashing my car into the pile of anxiety that was slowly consuming me.

Now, it was time to tell my husband.

My husband was as shocked as I was. And yes, probably a bit scared. But from what I remember of his reaction, he celebrated the news with excitement and awe. No matter what life throws at this man, he’ll find a way to be positive and strong. I can’t imagine riding this rollercoaster with anyone but him.

Despite the dramatic ways this pregnancy was about to change our lives, for a few weeks we choose to keep the news mostly to ourselves. Given what I had just experienced with the two chemical pregnancies, I thought there was a very high chance that I’d miscarry. Every time I’d go to the bathroom, I feared finding more blood in my pants. Moreover, being pregnant with twins was so far-fetched in the realm of possibilities for my life that I thought in some way, this had to be my body malfunctioning again.

But as more time passed without a miscarriage, I began to think, maybe we were supposed to have those two babies that we had just lost. Indeed, now writing this 30 weeks pregnant, I’m sure that’s the case. However, I never anticipated how hard we’d have to fight for them in the days and months ahead.

More on my diagnosis of Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome and the fetal surgery that I underwent in my next post.

With love—still from a hospital bed,

Kelsey